Marino Men’s Genuine Leather Ratchet Dress Belt With Automatic Buckle, Trim to Fit Enclosed in an Elegant Gift Box

It says genuine leather in the title. It says leather on the tag. Buried in the fine print it says genuine leather encapsulated in fortifying polyurethane. ..."fortifying polyurethane".Huh?When I cut it down to size, I had a piece of belt left over. My wife was 3 feet away cooking dinner. I thought to myself, "self, let's test this out." And I held the scrap of belt in the flame. For those who don't know, this is the ultimate test of leather. Real leather burns. It smells of burnt leather. Fake leather melts. It smells of plastic. As you can see from this photo, this is fake leather, contrary to the sales pitch. The brown outside melted and I scraped the melted goo off with a knife. Maybe it has "genuine leather" inside the belt, but if you encapsulate it with plastic, it's a plastic belt.

The mechanism that releases the belt from the buckle is difficult to operate. I had trouble loosening the buckle, which I needed to do in a hurry at that moment and had to cut the belt. Unfortunately and unable to see exactly what I was doing, I cut it at the wrong end, the end that is inserted through the buckle and not at the end permanently affixed to the buckle. This has made the belt useless as the end I cut off has the part that the locking mechanism grabs. I was starting to get the hang of how the release mechanism functions but now it is too late.UPDATEI did not request a replacement of the belt but Marino apparently read my review and offered to send me a free replacement belt and buckle with their latest model buckle which they said was much easier to use. The new belt buckle is perfect in form and function. Be sure to get the linXX buckle belt when you order. Marino is a reliable and responsible company.

Heads up, here is something you need to know. First, I love the belt. Works great.When you are adjusting the size, you are to cut the belt. Do not cut the belt - follow these instructions. Put the belt together. Get your pants on and put the belt on. Adjust it to the point where it is comfortable. Now measure from the tail sticking out past the buckle to the spot where you would want the tail to end up. Mine, it was 8.5 inches. Now take the belt off and take it apart. Using your tape, use your measurement to find the cut point. In my case, I measured 8.5 inches and then cut it. Put the belt back together and voila, it fit great.

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First thing right off the bat is that this belt comes neatly packaged in a classy looking box with some "extras" inside to make it a little fancy feeling. The buckle feels heavy, but in the sense that it feels well-made of metal rather than cheap plastic. The teeth on the buckle are no joke either...once you put the cut end into the holding area, it grips down tight. The ratcheting portion seems preety strong as well, but the belt portion is made of a type of plastic, whereas the buckle is made of metal. It feels sturdy though and can withstand some pretty good tugs. Overall, I like the belt thus far. And, I really like that they have measurement markings on the belt itself so you know exactly where to cut in order to size it down to what you need.

I would have given this belt five stars if it had good instructions. The belt is great. It does exactly what they said it would do. The lack of good instructions makes this great product just good. They have pictures with very few words telling you how to custom fit the length of your belt. But that’s it nothing else about how to unlatch it, which for some people seems to be a challenge, or how to remove the belt from the buckle so you can resize it. I’ve see complaints in the comments about not being able to release the latch that holds the buckle to the belt.To unlatch the buckle you stick a screw driver or some other durable pry bar just beneath the edge of the latch. If you inset it to far you are under the crossbar that the latch rests on. By inserting it just a tiny bit, the latch opens easily.The other complaint was releasing the buckle from the belt so that you can get the belt off. It seems intuitive to lift the release lever, but if you have the belt snug to tight, that won’t work. To release the ratchet so that you can remove the belt, apply a gentler pressure to the lever to pull it away from your body. Then take hold of the tongue of the belt and gently pull as to tighten the belt more. Once you move the belt through the buckle a tiny amount you will feel the lever release the ratchet. Then the belt is free to be withdrawn from the buckle.Better instructions and I would have given it five stars.

So the belt function of clicking into place works fine. I haven't had any issues with that part. The part that causes me to give this a bad review is way the buckle attaches to the back of the belt. It is this little flip open bracket with teeth. I am sure it is designed to be easily removed to allow you to change the length. But you do this very rarely. The belt isn't reversible so that isn't really the reason. But this bracket will pop open when you are not wearing it causing the buckle to fall off. You have to find it and reattach it. However this can damage the back of the belt causing you to need to cut it again slightly shortening it every few times this falls off. If they just made screws like 98% of belts have on the back this would be great. But a belt that he buckle randomly falls off isn't really an acceptable design.

I bought this for my fiancé as a Christmas present. It arrived on time, but to my confusion, I received the wrong belt buckle. it was nothing like the one in the picture and not the normal style my other half likes to wear. It looked smart though, so I went with it anyway and hoped he would like it, which he did. Brilliant, no need to send it back, it worked fine and he was pleased.He has been wearing it for just over a month, only for part of the buckle to come off... It is hard to explain but a thin piece of shiny plastic had been put in the groove of the buckle design to make it look black and shiny. This has peeled off completely. Not a major issue, the belt still works but it just doesn't look very good for something that is £20.00.If you order a belt, be prepared for it not to be the one in the picture!!

I really like cool IT and music productiontechnology....belts are not up there with my best boat floaters. Having recently lost a lot of weight my trousers are flying southwards....several belts later and they still were....nothing had quite managed to retain my inegrity....then boom....there were the Marinos....incredible quality....outstanding design and the best retention mechanism I've ever worn...really they are that good...I'm getting another one....no more frightening elderly ladies in the frozen food aisle!Dont be put off by having to fit it to size. Easy. I used a suitably sized and sharpened pair of wire cutters and there are clear instructions provided in the nicely put together packaging..Leather looks and feels high quality and the belt mechanism is an excellent piece of industrial led design.

Having had cheaper bonded belts split and distort after a short time I decided to give this a try. The belt is well made with double stitching all round and made of high quality leather. It is supple with the plastic strip of teeth not being any less flexible. Being able to adjust the belt to a fine degree is great and not having holes in it, which always end up distorting the belt, means it will continue to look good even after being worn a few times. Becuase of the ratchet mechanism the buckle is heavier than normal belts but does not create a problem. The design of the buckle keeps the end flat up against the body of the belt so that it does not stick out. Shortning the belt to suit was easy needing just a good pair of scissors. It is so good, I will be ordering another one of these in a different colour.

excellent product. I have to say only that the latch is not good and I received it bent and I will try to fix it.If the mechanism will be improved, in want to order for Christmas more for presents.I am sorry I had to write for the mechanism. I love the belt. so elegant. It will be nice before the despatch to check the item and its condition.Thank youGeorge

Got this for hubby, but he hasn’t used it yet only tried it on. First impressions are that it is good quality, and is as described. Got it because hubby was sick and tired of having a tight or loose belt as there is an inch between the holes on a standard belt, but with this he can get a perfect fit every time! We are both quite impressed.